Tools: SWOT Analysis

So what is a SWOT Analysis and how can it benefit your business or you personally?

Simply put it is an analysis tool used to analyse your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You can use the outcomes of your SWOT analysis as inputs for a variety of purposes from strategy formulation to opportunity evaluation.

The image below explains the SWOT analysis method in a easy to use format.

Looking on the left side Strengths and Weaknesses are of an internal origin (organisational) while Opportunities and Threats are of external origin (environmental)

Looking on the top side Strengths and Opportunities are helpful to achieving your objectives while Weaknesses and Threats are harmful to achieving your objectives

So ideally what you want to do is convert your Weaknesses into Strengths and your Threats into Opportunities

Remember your SWOT analysis is only as good as the information you input so make sure to be detailed and not provide vague information e.g. instead of describing a strength as your product rather describe what about your product is the strength

Below is a simple example exploring how to increase market share of a mind reading product for a business. Using the outcomes of the SWOT analysis the business will then formulate a market growth strategy to increase the products market share.